"Behind the ostensible government sits
enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging
no responsibility to the people."- Theodore Roosevelt

I was busily writing an article regarding the destructive effects on
our society of huge bonuses for corporate CEOs, when the January 20
news interrupted, such that I must comment. An astounding Supreme Court
decision was handed down that effectively handed our democracy over to
corporations, including multi-national, even foreign-controlled,
corporations! The case was titled Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.
The issue was whether or not corporations could pay for material that
advocated for or against specific candidates for President, Senators, or
U.S. Representatives. This ruling overturned a 20-year-old ruling that
prohibited corporations from using money from their general treasuries
to pay for campaign ads. It also reversed the McCain Feingold law that
kept them from running ads within a certain date before elections.

Historically, corporations and unions have been prohibited from
spending their own funds on broadcast ads or billboards urging election
or defeat of a federal candidate. This restriction dated from 1907,
when President Theodore Roosevelt asked Congress to prohibit
corporations, railroads and national banks from using their money in
federal election campaigns. At the end of World War II, Congress
applied the restriction to labor unions.

Now the Court says that corporations have free-speech rights just
like natural persons. They are free to use their billions to distort,
exaggerate and lie, if they so choose; to support or oppose as they see
fit. And it doesn't matter who runs the corporation, even
non-Americans. They could be a Saudi oil company (ARAMCO) or a Chinese
manufacturing company, or a corporation owned by anti-American
extremists. Are you ready for the next President from Citibank?

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Corporations and unions still can't give money directly to
campaigns. But they won't need to, since they can run their own ads.
And they do have to identify themselves in the ads, but not necessarily
who their backers are.

I don't know about you, but I take deep offense at the idea that
corporate entities are anywhere akin to human beings. The US
Constitution begins, "We the people of the United States." Were they
talking about anything other than human beings? Does anyone really
believe the First Amendment to the Constitution refers to the speech
of anyone other than natural persons?

The ruling passed 5-4. Those in favor were the conservative bloc on
the court, ALL appointed by Republican Presidents. Here it is, folks,
as if we needed any more evidence that the "Party of Lincoln" has been
taken over completely by corporatists. Conservatives railed against
"activist" judges who "legislate from the bench," yet this ruling from
their anointed Court is EXTREME activist legislation from the bench.
In this ruling, the Court ignored its long-standing rule of stare decisis ("Maintain what has been decided").

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However, in a 90-page dissent from the opinion, Justice John Paul
Stevens said that the framers of the Constitution "had little trouble
distinguishing corporations from human beings, and when they
constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it
was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind."
Good for him and good for the other dissenters, Justices Sotomayor,
Ginsburg and Breyer. Those who rail against liberal justices should
take note that THEY are the ones who stood for YOUR rights in this case.

Aside from Republicans and Libertarians, too many Democrats are cozy
with corporations as well. As we've recently seen in health insurance
reform debates, a few Democrats and one Independent have carried water
for their corporate insurance backers, trying to give them everything
they want, including the mandate that everyone buy insurance from
for-profit corporations. I've come to believe that the battle of this
century will be between the populists and the corporatists. The
Democrats should step up to be the party of the people, because
Republicans and Libertarians have already sealed their deal with the
corporations.

Like many Americans, I've created a corporation. It's as easy as
1-2-3, and there are plenty of websites that will throw one together for
you on the spot. But corporations are the creation of the government
which authorizes their existence. Does it not seem sickly circular
that they should now be able to directly manipulate election of
candidates to positions that set their taxes and operational standards?

If you think this decision doesn't affect us here in West Texas,
think again. Texas politics is already controlled to a great extent by
the energy industries and by insurance companies. With this ruling,
there is nothing to stop them now from taking more of our money, then
spending it to buy politicians who will let them take even more of our
money. Long gone will be legislation that benefits ordinary Americans
or protects the environment and wider will be the gap between the rich
and the rest of us which is eroding our society. And we'll be drowned
by more lies from corporate-backed entities such as Freedomworks,
Americans for Prosperity and Fox News.

To those who claim President Obama is trying to establish fascism in
this country, take note: This is the REAL fascism wedding the
corporation to the government. Government of, by and for the
corporation, brought to you, not by Obama, progressives and Democrats,
but by conservatives who put these people on the Supreme Court.

In 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled, in the infamous Dred Scott
decision, that people of African descent and their descendants were not
persons and could never be US citizens. They were deemed property, not
people. This decision so outraged the people that they enacted the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution. A similar outrage should consume us
now. We need to amend the Constitution to state once and for all that
corporations are NOT persons and are not entitled to the rights of
natural persons. Corporations are things, not people. Think of it as
the battle of Man vs Machine. I know which side I'm on; do you?